Clara Ruiz-González, awardee of the 2020 PIUS FONT I QUER award of the IEC

The Institut d'Estudis Catalans (IEC) has published the Sant Jordi 2020 Awards, which distinguish works and researchers from all areas of Catalan science and culture.

Clara Ruiz-González, member of SIBECOL and postdoctoral researcher in the Marine Microbial Ecology group of the Institut de Ciències del Mar, has received the award from the Biological Sciences Section PIUS FONT I QUER for Life Sciences, for her project "Microbial Metacommunities: dispersion and connectivity as determining factors of the diversity and function of aquatic microorganisms”.

Clara Ruiz-González focuses her research on understanding the relationship between diversity and function of aquatic microorganisms, mainly bacteria, as well as their role in different biogeochemical processes. During her career, she has progressively moved from a detailed experimental assessment of the responses of marine microbes to environmental factors, towards a more comprehensive and theoretical exploration of the regional and historical processes shaping microbial communities, by means of large-scale samplings of terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems and massive DNA sequencing. This shift has allowed her to explore the relevance of factors such as dispersal and connectivity in shaping aquatic microbial communities. Some results show a high microbial connectivity between terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems through the movement of water in the landscape, as well as between the surface and the deep ocean due to sinking particles. She is currently leading a project that explores the dispersal of species between fresh and marine water systems by investigating the effect of groundwater discharge in the Mediterranean.
                                                                               
More than a century recognizing Catalan excellence
The Sant Jordi Awards, established in 1914, constitute the oldest tradition of the IEC. For more than a century, these awards have promoted scientific research in diverse fields, culture and Catalan language. The awards integrate more than fifty recognitions, under the support of several sections, foundations, subsidiaries of the IEC and the Barcelona Provincial Council. This year, in total, the awards have exceeded 172,000 euros.
The complete list of awards included in the IEC LXXXIX Cartell de premis i de borses d'estudi can be found here: http://www.iec.cat/Comunicacio_IEC/Premis_2020_def_corr.pdf